As a total imbecile (Joe Public and a passenger) - I would have EQUAL confidence in a 'newbie' or a seasoned Pilot, purely on the fact that I assume by and large you do not have idiots flying aircraft, and in fact I might even say a less experienced aviator may be 'safer' as one would expect them to be relatively studious about wgat they were doing.
IMO Sirgawain123's question is VERY good: Why were the throttles closed? What would be the intention of such a control input?
Secondly: it the THS was at 13 degrees, what effect would this have on level flight? Would balancing inputs be needed on the control column/stick to prevent the aircraft getting too 'tail down'?
Are there any indications so far that after the Captain arrived there was any dramatic change in control inputs (as if the Captain spotted something?)
Once more with my halfwit goggles on, it does sometimes seem that people are reading too much into these things. G-ARPI crashed because the droops were retracted and the aircraft was pitched to hold an incorrect (too low) airspeed, and multiple stall warnings and pitch downs were ignored and countered until the aircraft stalled. The point being the investigation strived to reason why the crew did not notice the droop retraction: and this accident was a catalyst for CVR to be fitted.
This is not to say CVR is not a valuable tool: but rather CVR of itself does not prevent the 'cause' of accidents - it may prove that a crew was having a disco at the time, or snoring away, but may also prove that they simply did not foresee the 'main problem' - looking at what has been released so far does it not appear to be the case that this is the situation?
I do not know more than I read here: stall warning= push down - watch altitude and pitch. The command inputs we are seeing so far tell us that exactly the opposite was happening: therefore that is the cause of the accident is it not?